On days when you just want some great tasting food within minutes of thinking about it, you make this Super Easy 1 Pot Peanut butter or Almond Butter Sauce Noodles and Veggies! Just chop things up, layer, cook and done.

I mean literally 12 minutes. Add water to your saucepan, add noodles, add veggies, nut butter (I usually use almond butter), flavors, bring to a boil, simmer for until the noodles are done. Garnish and serve! The noodles are somewhat soupy, which is how I love the dish as there is so much flavor in the sauce. The noodles absorb the sauce as they cool, so by the next day, there won’t be any. Adjust the liquid and noodle quantities to preference. This recipe is oil-free if your nut butter has no oil. Also see Video just above the Recipe.

Commercial Nut butters often contain palm oil. Some Regular nut and seed butters by Artisana, Dastony, Once Again, Wilderness Family Naturals, Woodstock Farms, organic unsweetened Sunbutter (not the other varieties), a few of the products made by Maranatha (such as their peanut butter and raw organic and raw regular almond butter), and Whole Foods 365 brand of plain peanut and almond butter do not contain palm oil. in the US. See UK list here, Australia list here. Let me know of your favorite palm oil free brands in the comments.

Add noodles and push them down so they are covered in water. Arrange veggies on the sides or top of the noodles. I added a chopped green chile as well.

Add tofu and the rest of the ingredients through cayenne.

Bring the pot to a boil over medium heat. Stir occasionally really well to make sure the nut butter mixes in and the noodles cook evenly. Once boiling well, add in the celery and mix in. Cook for another minute or 2. Check the noodles for doneness, Taste and adjust sweet, heat and lemon.

Fold in cilantro, basil, or baby spinach if using. Let sit for another minute before serving. Garnish with peanuts or sprouts and a dash of fresh lime. We added a good dash of red pepper flakes as well.

Recipe Notes

Variations: Add zest of half a kaffir lime or lime.Add 1/2 cup coconut milk + 1 3/4 cup water for creamier sauce.Add some sesame oil for stronger nutty flavor profile. Cook the garlic, ginger and tofu in a bit of oil to golden, toss in veggies and cook for a minute, then add the water, noodles and the rest.

To make soy-free, use coconut aminos for soy sauce, and chickpea tofu or cooked chickpeas or lentils or more veggies instead of Tofu!

Tips: The noodles keep cooking in the hot broth. So you want to take the pan off heat as soon as the noodles are al dente. Different noodles have different cooking times. If the noodles generally are ending up over cooked, add them to the pan 3 to 4 minutes after adding all the veggie and sauce ingredients.

Comments

I’m feeling so sick and was craving some veggies and tofu. I came across your recipe after searching “easy vegan” on pintrest and decided to try it because it looked so quick. It’s delicious! Fulfilled everything I was craving and has good protein. I’m starting to feel whole again. Thank you for the awesome recipe idea!

This tasted good (although a little bland, maybe I used too many noodles) but I would recommend doing the noodles last. My peanut butter got all gloopy and didn’t mix in very well. I think cooking up the broth first before adding the noodles would work better.

I cooked this tonight using your variation of stir frying the garlic, ginger and peppers first (stir fried the tofu separately) and added some coconut milk. I used a lot of thai basil, cilantro and scallions at the end … The flavor was great but it all turned out too thick from the pasta that was rather soggy (despite that I followed the suggested cooking time on the package)… I am sorry but for me this feels like it is all the right ingredients put together the wrong way.

My children are the best critiques of your recipes and most indian dishes I cooked from your book so far they simply devoured.

Perhaps the “al dente” lovers out there can cook the pasta separately (there goes the one pot idea) and pour this sauce on top at the table. Just a thought. I’ll keep playing with your recipes, thank you for sharing!

maybe the pasta got overcooked? The pasta continues to cook in the hot broth after the pan is taken off heat too. So you want to cook it just a touch more than al dente, let it sit for 2 mins or so before serving. It also depends on the pasta and noodles etc. I prefer this with brown rice noodles as they dont make the broth too thick. If you make the pasta separately, then blend up the sauce ingredients with just a bit of water and add to the tofu + veggie pan. bring to a boil and toss in the paste. Cover and let it sit for a minute or so. See my Peanut sauce fried rice for this method. http://www.veganricha.com/2015/12/peanut-sauce-fried-rice.html

H i Jessica, all noodles have different cooking times, so you would have to adjust accordingly. the angel hair i have tried with wheat/semolina based and it takes 1-2 mins longer to cook than brown rice pad thai noodles. I dont know the cooking time for brown rice angel hair. if it is like mai fun, then those cook really quickly and should be added once the sauce/water is boiling so you can control when to take the pot off heat.

This is an absolutely wonderful recipe, Richa. Thank you so much. It also works beautifully without the peanut sauce and sugar (I often like noodles without or with less of the sweet principle). I did saute the ginger and garlic first, with a bit of turmeric (trying to get more turmeric in my diet ;-)!) and it was lovely. Thank you for being so generous with your recipes!

I am eating it right now absolutely awesome and so much flavor for such little effort I had to do a couple of subs as no time to go shopping. Used udon noodles smoked tofu and thai holy basil Wanted to cut back on fat so used PBfit which is the same as PB8 but no palm oil and used bok choi instead of the celery as suggested This recipe is going to become a staple and great for both me and my hubby as he is unfortunately not vegan so he could add some cut up meat or chicken thanks for a stupendous recipe

Loved this easy recipe! I had some “odds and ends” veggies and this was a great way to use them up! I added some (very old and sad looking) potatoes which was surprisingly delicious! I also tossed the end of a bag of a broccoli in about 3 minutes before removing it from heat.

Instead of cooking the noodles with the veggies, I used Shirataki Spaghetti noodles and just scooped the veggies/sauce on top of the rinsed noodles. In this case, I would suggest reducing the amount of water by 3/4-1 cup, depending on how thick you want the broth.

Hi Maddie, it depends on the kind you generally like. Restaurants usually fry or bake the tofu and add to the dish. In this recipe, the tofu is added as is so it will be soft. For a restaurant style crisp and chewy tofu, try my sticky sesame tofu, or breaded tofu strips.

I tried the receipe recently and it was very good! My boyfriend like it a lot also! Maybe I used a lot of noodles, but it made 1 quite large portion and 2 regular portion). Since it’s a fairly simple recipe, I’m going to cook it again for 13 peoples this week-end. I think I’ll multiply the ingredients by 6 or 7 (but a bit more for the veggies). Do you know how much water I should put in approximately? Thank you!

That large a quantity may result in overcooked noodles when cooked in the same pot. You might want to cook the noodles separately to al dente. Then cook the tofu and veggies until they are crisp tender and add the sauce and spice ingredients and just 1 cup or so water (depending ont he amount of sauce you want with the noodles). Bring to a boil , Taste and adjust flavor and then fold in the noodles to simmer for 1-2 mins with the sauce. Garnish and serve.

I just made this and I am so disappointed! The flavor was exceedingly bland. I used 8 ounces of rice noodles and as a result added about 3-4 ounces more water. Is that what caused the loss of flavor? There is no flavor and I’m so bummed.

Yes, any additional volume in noodles,veggies, water etc will need additional flavor,spices,salt etc. Its like doubling a recipe but not doubling the flavor, which means it will turn out bland. You can taste while boiling and add more nut butter and the rest of the flavorings and mix in.

I prefer my tofu in smaller pieces – can I cube them to my usual size preference and still have it come out nicely? I’m worried about small pieces losing their structural integrity while boiling in water. Thanks!

Firm pressed tofu should work fine. You can add it after you add the noodles and peanut butter and mix everything in. The nut butter takes a few good strokes to mix in, So add after that since there isnt much stirring after that.

So delicious and so easy! It’s the kind of recipe that you can mash up a bit with different veggies and still have great results. I used Thai Kitchen Brown Rice noodles, and doubled the vegetables, doubled the water (therefore increasing the ginger, garlic, tamari), and left it to cook a bit longer (maybe 10 mins) so the flavors would mingle. I had no issue with sogginess and it was delicious. I did add the tofu to the bowls before ladling the soup and it was perfect. Thank you for an fairly fool proof, comforting meal!

Tried this tonight, made a double batch because I didn’t want to do half a box of noodles and half a box of tofu. Ended up adding a bit extra peanut butter and soy sauce because it was slightly more than double noodles and double tofu. I was surprised how much sriracha I ended up using, because we’re not really a spicy-hot family though we love the not-hot spices. The noodles, tofu, and coconut milk (I did that variation) really soaked up the heat. Delicious! So much genius in your recipes, they all ‘just work’. I know that’s because you research them and practice and tweak them, and it really shows.

So I bought some really terrible ramen noodles that are way too starchy, and because I’m stubborn (cheap?) I refuse to throw them out. I found this recipe thinking that the flavours would be good enough to counteract the awful noodles, and boy was it ever! I can’t wait to try again with noodles that don’t suck lol.